DOCSLIB.ORG

How the Poverty of the Stimulus Solves the Poverty of the Stimulus

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
How the Poverty of the Stimulus Solves the Poverty of the Stimulus How the Poverty of the Stimulus Solves the Poverty of the Stimulus WilleIll ZuideIlla Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit and Institute for Cell, Animal and Population Biology University of Edinburgh 40 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, United Kingdom [email protected] Abstract Language acquisition is a special kind of learning problem because the outcome of learning of one generation is the input for the next. That makes it possible for languages to adapt to the particularities of the learner. In this paper, I show that this type of language change has important consequences for models of the evolution and acquisition of syntax. 1 The Language Acquisition Problem For both artificial systems and non-human animals, learning the syntax of natural languages is a notoriously hard problem. All healthy human infants, in contrast, learn any of the approximately 6000 human languages rapidly, accurately and spon­ taneously. Any explanation of how they accomplish this difficult task must specify the (innate) inductive bias that human infants bring to bear, and the input data that is available to them. Traditionally, the inductive bias is termed - somewhat un­ fortunately - "Universal Grammar", and the input data "primary linguistic data". Over the last 30 years or so, a view on the acquisition of the syntax of natural language has become popular that has put much emphasis on the innate machinery. In this view, that one can call the "Principles and Parameters" model, the Universal Grammar specifies most aspects of syntax in great detail [e.g. 1]. The role of experience is reduced to setting a limited number (30 or so) of parameters. The main argument for this view is the argument from the poverty of the stimulus [2]. This argument states that children have insufficient evidence in the primary linguistic data to induce the grammar of their native language. Mark Gold [3] provides the most well-known formal basis to this argument. Gold introduced the criterion "identification in the limit" for evaluating the success of a learning algorithm: with an infinite number of training samples all hypotheses of the algorithm should be identical, and equivalent to the target. Gold showed that the class of context-free grammars is not learnable in this sense by any algorithm from positive samples alone (and neither are other super'-jinite classes). This proof is based on the fact that no matter how many samples from an infinite language a learning algorithm has seen, the algorithm can not decide with certainty that the samples are drawn from the infinite language or from a finite language that con­ tains all samples. Because natural languages are thought to be at least as complex as context-free grammars, and negative feedback is assumed to be absent in the primary linguistic data, Gold's analysis, and subsequent work in learn ability theory [1] , is usually interpreted as strong support for the argument from the poverty of the stimulus, and, in the extreme, for the view that grammar induction is fundamentally impossible (a claim that Gold would not subscribe to). Critics of this "nativist" approach [e.g. 4, 5] have argued for different assumptions on the appropriate grammar formalism (e.g. stochastic context-free grammars), the available primary data (e.g. semantic information) or the appropriate learnability criterion. In this paper I will take a different approach. I will present a model that induces context-free grammars without a-priori restrictions on the search space, se­ mantic information or negative evidence. Gold's negative results thus apply. Never­ theless, acquisition of grammar is successful in my model, because another process is taken into account as well: the cultural evolution of language. 2 The Language Evolution Problem Whereas in language acquisition research the central question is how a child acquires an existing language, in language evolution research the central question is how this language and its properties have emerged in the first place. Within the nativist paradigm, some have suggested that the answer to this question is that Universal Grammar is the product of evolution under selection pressures for communication [e.g. 6]. Recently, several formal models have been presented to evaluate this view. For this paper, the most relevant of those is the model of Nowak et al. [7]. In that model it is assumed that there is a finite number of grammars, that new­ comers (infants) learn their grammar from the population, that more successful grammars have a higher probability of being learned and that mistakes are made in learning. The system can thus be described in terms of the changes in the relative frequencies Xi of each grammar type i in the population. The first result that Nowak et al. obtain is a "coherence threshold". This threshold is the necessary condition for grammatical coherence in a population, i.e. for a majority of individuals to use the same grammar. They show that this coherence depends on the chances that a child has to correctly acquire its parents' grammar. This probability is described with the parameter q. Nowak et al. show analytically that there is a minimum value for q to keep coherence in the population. If q is lower than this value, all possible grammar types are equally frequent in the population and the communicative suc­ cess in minimal. If q is higher than this value, one grammar type is dominant; the communicative success is much higher than before and reaches 100% if q = l. The second result relates this required fidelity (called qd to a lower bound (be) on the number of sample sentences that a child needs. Nowak et al. make the crucial assumption that all languages are equally expressive and equally different from each other. With that assumption they can show that be is proportional to the total number of possible grammars N. Of course, the actual number of sample sentences b is finite; Nowak et al. conclude that only if N is relatively small can a stable grammar emerge in a population. I.e. the population dynamics require a restrictive Universal Grammar. The models of Gold and Nowak et al. have in common that they implicitly assume that every possible grammar is equally likely to become the target grammar for learning. If even the best possible learning algorithm cannot learn such a grammar, the set of allowed grammars must be restricted. There is, however, reason to believe that this assumption is not the most useful for language learning. Language learning is a very particular type of learning problem, because the outcome of the learning process at one generation is the input for the next. The samples from which a child learns with its learning procedure, are therefore biased by the learning of previous generations that used the same procedure[8]. In [9] and other papers, Kirby, Hurford and students have developed a framework to study the consequences of that fact. In this framework, called the "Iterated Learning Model" (ILM), a population of individuals is modeled that can each pro­ duce and interpret sentences, and have a language acquisition procedure to learn grammar from each other. In the ILM one individual (the parent) presents a rela­ tively small number of examples of form-meaning pairs to the next individual (the child). The child then uses these examples to induce his own granunar. In the next iteration the child becomes the parent, and a new individual becomes the child. This process is repeated many times. Interestingly, Kirby and Hurford have found that in these iterated transmission steps the language becomes easier and easier to learn, because the language adapts to the learning algorithm by becoming more and more structured. The structure of language in these models thus emerges from the iteration of learning. The role of biological evolution, in this view, is to shape the learning algorithms, such that the complex results of the iterated learning is biologically adaptive [10]. In this paper I will show that if one adopts this view on the interactions between learning, cultural evolution and biological evolution, the models such as those of Gold [3] and Nowak et al. [7] can no longer be taken as evidence for an extensive, innate pr~specification of human language. 3 A Simple Model of Grammar Induction To study the interactions between language adaptation and language acquisition, I have first designed a grammar induction algorithm that is simple, but can never­ theless deal with some non-trivial induction problems. The model uses context-free grammars to represent linguistic abilities. In particular, the representation is lim­ ited to grammars G where all rules are of one of the following forms: (1) A 1-+ t, (2) A 1-+ BC, (3) A 1-+ Bt. The nontenninals A, B, C are elements of the non-terminal alphabet Vnt , which includes the start symbol S. t is a string of tenninal sym­ bols from the terminal alphabet Vt 1• For determining the language L of a certain grammar G I use simple depth-first exhaustive search of the derivation tree. For computational reasons, the depth of the search is limited to a certain depth d, and the string length is limited to length l. The set of sentences (L' ~ L) used in train­ ing and in communication is therefore finite (and strictly speaking not context-free, but regular); in production, strings are drawn from a uniform distribution over L'. The grammar induction algorithm learns from a set of sample strings (sentences) that are provided by a teacher. The design of the learning algorithm is originally inspired by [11] and is similar to the algorithm in [12]. The algorithm fits within a tradition of algorithms that search for compact descriptions of the input data [e.g.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Children's First Language Acquisition
    School of Humanities Department of English Children’s first language acquisition What is needed for children to acquire language? BA Essay Erla Björk Guðlaugsdóttir Kt.: 160790-2539 Supervisor: Þórhallur Eyþórsson May 2016 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Anatomy 5 2.1 Language production areas in the brain 5 2.2. Organs of speech and speech production 6 3 Linguistic Nativism 10 3.1 Language acquisition device (LAD) 11 3.2 Universal Grammar (UG) 12 4 Arguments that support Chomsky’s theory 14 4.1 Poverty of stimulus 14 4.2 Uniformity 15 4.3 The Critical Period Hypothesis 17 4.4 Species significance 18 4.5 Phonological impairment 19 5 Arguments against Chomsky’s theory 21 6 Conclusion 23 References 24 Table of figures Figure 1 Summary of classification of the organs of speech 7 Figure 2 The difference between fully grown vocal tract and infant's vocal tract 8 Figure 3 Universal Grammar’s position within Chomsky’s theory 13 Abstract Language acquisition is one of the most complex ability that human species acquire. It has been a burning issue that has created tension between scholars from various fields of professions. Scholars are still struggling to comprehend the main factors about language acquisition after decades of multiple different theories that were supposed to shed a light on the truth of how human species acquire language acquisition. The aim of this essay is to explore what is needed for children to acquire language based on Noam Chomsky theory of language acquisition. I will cover the language production areas of the brain and how they affect language acquisition.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Input Revisited: Nativist Versus Usage-Based Models
    UC Berkeley L2 Journal Title The role of input revisited: Nativist versus usage-based models Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/647983hc Journal L2 Journal, 1(1) Author Zyzik, Eve Publication Date 2009 DOI 10.5070/l2.v1i1.9056 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California L2 Journal, Volume 1 (2009), pp. 42‐61 http://repositories.cdlib.org/uccllt/l2/vol1/iss1/art4 The Role of Input Revisited: Nativist versus Usage-Based Models EVE ZYZIK University of California, Santa Cruz E­mail: [email protected] This article examines the role of input in two contrasting theories of language acquisition: nativist (UG) theory and the usage-based (emergentist) approach. Although extensive treat- ments of input are available for first language acquisition (cf. Gathercole & Hoff, 2007), such research rarely incorporates findings from second language acquisition. Accordingly, this paper examines a range of linguistic phenomena from both first and second language contexts (e.g., yes-no question formation, constraints on want-to contraction) in order to illustrate how each theory might explain their acquisition. The discussion of input presented here addresses various constructs, including the problem of the poverty of the stimulus, the lack of negative evidence, the role of indirect (missing) evidence, recovery from overgener- alization, and frequency effects. The article concludes with a reappraisal of the poverty of the stimulus problem in SLA from a usage-based perspective. _______________ Recent publications in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) show a marked trend towards usage-based approaches to describe the development of linguistic knowl- edge (cf.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Poverty of the Stimulus' Revisited
    ‘Poverty of the Stimulus’ Revisited: Recent Challenges Reconsidered Robert C. Berwick ([email protected]) Department of EECS and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, 32D-728, 77 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Noam Chomsky ([email protected]) Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT, 32D-840, 77 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Introduction: The “Poverty of the Stimulus” to examples such as (1), but does not generalize correctly to (2), whereas (B) leads to the correct generalization. Children A central goal of modern generative grammar has been to and adult grammars select (B), indicating that structure discover the invariant properties of language, principles dependence is part of the a priori schematism cited earlier. presumably “part of the innate schematism of mind that is applied to the data of experience” and that “might reasonably be attributed to the organism itself as its Recent Challenges to the POS Reconsidered contribution to the task of the acquisition of knowledge” Some recent research challenges this particular AFP- (Chomsky, 1971). One such putative principle is the grounded POS argument. For example, Perfors, structure dependence of grammatical rules generally, Tennenbaum & Regier (2006) assert that “dependence of including rules of question formation. One argument for linguistic rules on hierarchical phrase structure” could be this position, presented in Chomsky (1968), is sometimes learned “given typical child-redirected input,” thereby called an ‘argument from the poverty of the stimulus’ (POS) defusing the POS argument. But this challenge, like the since the sample data for selecting a correct target others cited, is flawed. The POS argument was formulated hypothesis does not seem rich enough without positing a on the assumption that hierarchical structure was the right priori the principle in question.
    [Show full text]
  • Is the Third Factor Helpful Or Harmful in Explaining Language?
    Biolinguistics or Physicolinguistics? Is the Third Factor Helpful or Harmful in Explaining Language? Sverker Johansson Noam Chomsky (2005) proposed that a ‘third factor’, consisting of general principles and natural laws, may explain core properties of language in a principled manner, minimizing the need for either genetic endowment or experience. But the focus on third-factor patterns in much recent bio- linguistic work is misguided for several reasons: First, ‘the’ third factor is a vague and disparate collection of unrelated components, useless as an analytical tool. Second, the vagueness of the third factor, together with the desire for principled explanations, too often leads to sweeping claims, such as syntax “coming for free, directly from physics”, that are unwarranted without a case-by-case causal analysis. Third, attention is diverted away from a proper causal analysis of language as a biological feature. The point with biolinguistics is to acknowledge the language faculty as a biological feature. The best way forward towards an understanding of language is to take the biology connection seriously, instead of dabbling with physics. Keywords: causal analysis; Fibonacci; natural law; physics; third factor 1. Explaining Language — Principled and Causal Explanations Chomsky (2005) identifies three separate factors that can jointly explain the language faculty in the human brain: (1) Genetic endowment, the “universal grammar” (UG). (2) Experience, the stimulus available to the language learners. (3) The ‘third factor’, principles not specific to the faculty of language. Helpful comments from Rie Asano and two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. The current structure of the paper is largely due to constructive suggestions from one of the reviewers.
    [Show full text]
  • Ling 51/Psych 56L: Acquisition of Language
    Ling 51/Psych 56L: Acquisition of Language Lecture 3 The study of language acquisition Announcements Be working on the review questions and HW1 HW1 is due 10/6/17 at 2:50pm TA office hours are now available and active (so come visit!) Theoretical viewpoints The question “It is obvious that children have some quality of mind that explains why they learn to talk but kittens, for example, do not” – Hoff 2008, p.254 Not obvious what this quality is. Idea 1: Children have specialized (domain-specific) knowledge about how language works. Idea 2: Children’s domain-general cognitive processes allow them to acquire language while a kitten’s do not. Chomskyan revolution Chomsky 1957: Syntactic Structures Innovation: What speakers do is not as interesting as the mental grammar that underlies what speakers do So, if adults have a mental grammar that explains what they do when they talk, children must have a mental grammar that explains what children do when they talk. New formation of language development: What are children’s grammars like and how do they eventually achieve adult grammars? Chomskyan revolution h[ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cgpfw4z8cw Especially 0:24-1:35 Some current approaches Language as a complex cognitive system that maps sounds to meaning One idea for the mechanism behind this process: Language Acquisition Device LAD Information from the environment Language Acquisition Language Acquisition Device (unconscious process inside child’s mind, used only for learning language) Some current approaches Linguistic nativist (generativist) approach Knowledge Premise: LAD contains some domain-specific specifically about knowledge about the structure of language (this is human language often called Universal Grammar).
    [Show full text]
  • The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument1 Stephen Laurence and Eric Margolis
    Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 52 )2001), 217±276 The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument1 Stephen Laurence and Eric Margolis ABSTRACT Noam Chomsky's Poverty of the Stimulus Argument is one of the most famous and controversial arguments in the study of language and the mind. Though widely endorsed by linguists, the argument has met with much resistance in philosophy. Unfortunately, philosophical critics have often failed to fully appreciate the power of the argument. In this paper, we provide a systematic presentation of the Poverty of the Stimulus Argument, clarifying its structure, content, and evidential base. We defend the argument against a variety of philosophical criticisms, new and old, and argue that the Poverty of the Stimulus Argument continues to deserve its guiding role in the study of language and the mind. 1 Introduction 2 Empiricism and nativism 3 The prima facie case for nativist models of language 3.1 What is the Poverty of the Stimulus Argument? 3.2 Obstacles for empiricist learners 3.3 Further obstacles for empiricist learners 3.4 Two arguments,not one 4 Supporting arguments for nativism 5 Early philosophical criticisms 5.1 Goodman 5.2 Putnam 6 A taxonomy of theoretical options 7 The A Posteriori Argument from the Poverty of the Stimulus 7.1 Cowie's two versions of the Poverty of the Stimulus Argument 7.2 What's wrong with Cowie's analysis of APS 7.3 The iterated argument 8 The argument from the logical problem of language acquisition 8.1 Cowie's curries 8.2 Negative data,negative evidence,and nativism 9 Final thoughts 1 This paper is fully collaborative; the order of the authors' names is arbitrary.
    [Show full text]
  • THE POVERTY of the STIMULUS ARGUMENT ONCE AGAIN Análisis Filosófico, Vol
    Análisis Filosófico ISSN: 0326-1301 [email protected] Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Filosófico Argentina SKIDElSKY, LIZA THE POVERTY OF THE STIMULUS ARGUMENT ONCE AGAIN Análisis Filosófico, vol. XXXVI, núm. 2, noviembre, 2016, pp. 143-170 Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Filosófico Buenos Aires, Argentina Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=340049813001 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative sadaf-AF36-2 quintas_prueba 2.qxd 31/01/2017 08:51 a.m. Página 143 THE POVERTY OF THE STIMULUS ARGUMENT ONCE AGAIN lIZA SKIDelSKY * universidad de Buenos Aires - ConICeT [email protected] Abstract The best-known argument in favor of the innatism of certain mental structures is still the ‘Poverty of the Stimulus Argument’ (PoSA). The general idea of the PoSA is that the knowledge which needs to be acquired to develop a certain cognitive capacity vastly exceeds the information available in the environment, so the organism contributes innate information. A review of the literature on linguistic PoSA shows that it is not yet fully clear what kind of argument this is and what it really shows. This paper is intended as a diagnosis of the innateness strategy that makes use of the PoSA. I will distinguish three types of PoSAs and argue, first, that the most appropriate type of PoSA, according to certain empirical and theoretical criteria, does not seem to be sufficient for linguistic nativism and, second, that for it to be sufficient, it is usually supplemented with an armchair argument which weakens the empirical nature of the innateness hypothesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward More Substantial Theories of Language
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by The University of Utah: J. Willard Marriott Digital Library TOWARD MORE SUBSTANTIAL THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION by Cinnamon Ann Jenson A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy The University of Utah December 2015 Copyright © Cinnamon Ann Jenson 2015 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL The dissertation of Cinnamon Ann Jenson has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Patricia Hanna , Chair 7/29/2015 Date Approved Steven Downes , Member 7/29/2015 Date Approved James Tabery , Member 7/29/2015 Date Approved Dustin Stokes , Member 7/29/2015 Date Approved Edward Rubin , Member 7/29/2015 Date Approved and by Matthew Haber , Chair/Dean of the Department/College/School of Philosophy and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT Cognitive linguists argue that certain sets of knowledge of language are innate. However, critics have argued that the theoretical concept of “innateness” should be eliminated since it is ambiguous and insubstantial. In response, I aim to strengthen theories of language acquisition and identify ways to make them more substantial. I review the Poverty of Stimulus argument and separate it into four nonequivalent arguments: Deficiency of Stimulus, Corruption of Stimulus, Variety of Stimulus, and Poverty of Negative Evidence. Each argument uses a disparate set of empirical observations to support different conclusions about the traits that are claimed to be innate.
    [Show full text]
  • First Language Acquisition
    University of Iceland School of Humanities English First Language Acquisition Are We Born with a Specific Ability to Acquire Language? B.A. Thesis Werner Johnsløv Kt.: 070289-5049 Supervisor: Þórhallur Eyþórsson May 2018 Abstract The purpose of this essay is to evaluate and assess the established theories behind innateness in first language acquisition. It sets out to explore the basic theories behind Noam Chomsky’s Innateness Hypothesis. This includes an overview of the Language Acquisition Device and its relationship to Universal Grammar. The argument for the theory of Poverty of Stimulus, and an overview of the arguments for the likelihood of an existence of a critical period of language acquisition. The paper primarily focuses on how these established theories support Chomsky’s views that language is an innate structure that children are born with. Furthermore, the essay sets out to evaluate a more recent book by Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick on the history of language and its initial emergence, as well as its relationship with how human speech has changed over time. Then finally, I give an overview of Charles Yang’s work on computational research based on the formation of productive rules on grammar within first language acquisition. The initial premise of the essay is to evaluate a selection of theories proposed by established linguists that there is an innate structure in human beings that determines how we acquire language the way that we do. The majority of research on this topic seems to agree with nativist theories, although the actual evidence to support these claims is to a certain degree still inadequate.
    [Show full text]
  • Poverty of the Stimulus Arguments in Phonology
    Poverty of the Stimulus Arguments in Phonology William J. Idsardi, University of Delaware Abstract: Recent discussions of Chomsky's poverty of the stimulus argument have focused on the empirical side of the argument to the exclusion of its conceptual and philosophical foundations in the general problem of induction (Hume, Goodman, etc.). Moreover, it has been claimed that there are no poverty of the stimulus arguments in phonology. Against these claims this article offers an example of a phonological poverty of the stimulus argument which is made stronger by its relation to Berwick's Subset Principle for language acquisition. Keywords: phonology, poverty of the stimulus, Subset Principle, induction, acquisition 1. Introduction Blevins 2004, (1), and Carr 2005, (2), assert that there are no poverty of stimulus arguments in phonology. (1) “The evidence from language acquisition and the patterns of word-based syllabification presented in this section argue strongly for data-driven learning in phonology. Within the domain of sounds, there is no poverty of the stimulus.” Blevins 2004: 235 (2) “Given this, I have tried to sustain an argument to the effect that, if UG exists, then it provides a set of abstract semantico-syntactic objects and relations which are distinct in kind from the sorts of information internalisable from the signal. Phonological objects and relations are internalisable: there is no poverty of the stimulus argument in phonology. No phonological knowledge is given by UG. 1 of 14 The relations contracted by phonological objects are distinct in kind from the relations given by UG, and alleged syntax/phonology parallelisms, said to be given by UG, are questionable.” Carr 2005: 21 (in print, page number subject to change in published version) As a historiographical comment, it may indeed be true that there are a paucity of cases of poverty of stimulus arguments from phonology (though see Halle 1961, 1978).
    [Show full text]
  • Argument from the Poverty of the Stimulus
    The Argument from the Poverty of the Stimulus Oxford Handbooks Online The Argument from the Poverty of the Stimulus Howard Lasnik and Jeffrey L. Lidz The Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar Edited by Ian Roberts Print Publication Date: Dec 2016 Subject: Linguistics, Morphology and Syntax, Language and Cognition Online Publication Date: Feb 2017 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199573776.013.10 Abstract and Keywords This article explores what Noam Chomsky called ‘the argument from poverty of the stimulus’: the argument that our experience far underdetermines our knowledge and hence that our biological endowment is responsible for much of the derived state. It first frames the poverty of the stimulus argument either in terms of the set of sentences allowed by the grammar (its weak generative capacity) or the set of structures generated by the grammar (its strong generative capacity). It then considers the five steps to a poverty argument and goes on to discuss the possibility that children can learn via indirect negative evidence on the basis of Bayesian learning algorithms. It also examines structure dependence, polar interrogatives, and artificial phrase structure and concludes by explaining how Universal Grammar shapes the representation of all languages and enables learners to acquire the complex system of knowledge that undergirds the ability to produce and understand novel sentences. Keywords: Noam Chomsky, experience, knowledge, poverty of the stimulus argument, indirect negative evidence, Bayesian learning algorithms, structure dependence, polar interrogatives, artificial phrase structure, Universal Grammar 10.1 Introduction THE problem of language acquisition has always been a central concern, perhaps the central concern, in generative grammar.
    [Show full text]
  • Psych229: Language Acquisition
    Seidenberg (1997): Innate Biases ≠ Grammatical Knowledge Psych229: The Standard Theory, according to Chomsky Language Acquisition Big Questions of Language Acquisition: What constitutes knowledge of language? How is this knowledge acquired? Lecture 18 How is this knowledge used? Poverty of the Stimulus & Modeling Seidenberg (1997): Seidenberg (1997): Innate Biases ≠ Grammatical Knowledge Innate Biases ≠ Grammatical Knowledge Knowledge of language, according to Chomsky Properties of language, according to Chomsky Knowledge of language = grammar Grammar is generative: it can be used to produce and comprehend an infinite number of sentences Grammar = complex set of rules and constraints that gives speakers intuitions that some sentences belong in the language while others do not Grammar involves abstract structures: information that speakers unconsciously used is not overtly available in the observable data Competence Hypothesis: Grammar is separate from “performance factors”, like dysfluencies (she said…um..wrote that), errors (I bringed it), memory capacity (The Grammar is modular: there are separate components with different types of boy that the dog that the cat chased bit ran home.), and statistical properties of representations governed by different principles language (frequency of transitive (Sarah ate the peach) vs. intransitive use (Sarah ate)) Grammar is domain-specific: language exhibits properties not seen in other areas of cognition, so it cannot be the product of our general ability to think and learn “I think we are forced
    [Show full text]